Page 36 of Stolen Temptation

“Where you’ll be staying.”

Her eyelids lower. I suspect she’s preparing herself for the worst possible scenario, and I can’t help but wonder what she’s imagining.

Maybe she could use a little reminder.

Before I leave to let her change, I grasp her chin between my fingers, tilting her head so that she’s forced to look at me.

“I wasn’t lying before. No one is going to hurt you, Kiara.” I pause a beat before delivering the punch line. “Unless you try a stunt like that again.”

Chapter 11

Kiara

Esmeralda helps me into a fresh pair of clothes,tskingover the purple and blue bruises developing on my feet from where I kicked Rory and his friends like my life depended on it. They’re definitely hurting now. What I wouldn’t do for some pain meds…

She changes the bandage on my forehead and patches up a scrape on my arm that I hadn’t noticed, then sends me out to my impending doom.

Rory waits for me in the hallway, leaning on the wall with his hands in his pockets and a faint smile like nothing is amiss.

What did he call me again?An endangered species?

My fingers curl into fists. I relax my hands and do my best to hide the anger burning inside me. If I’m going to lure him into believing I trust him, I need to behave as if my thoughts don’t center around getting as far away from him as I possibly can.

“After you.” He waves an open palm toward the sliding double doors at the end of the wide corridor.

I walk ahead because, of course, he’s not stupid enough to let me walk behind him. He knows I’d slip away at the first opportunity.

My new self-appointed task is to convince him otherwise.

The weight of his eyes on my back tickles the area between my shoulder blades as I hurry down the hall and through the doors. I expect us to emerge onto a rooftop, what with the skylights in all the patient rooms of this place, but as soon as I step outside, I realize there is no rooftop to speak of.

The Kings’ medical unit is completely underground.

If I had managed to escape through that skylight, I would have ended up on ground level.

“This way.” Rory’s fingertips connect with the small of my back in an attempt to guide me. I flinch away from his touch, my entire body prickling with uncomfortable awareness.

We’re on a cobblestone path that winds around to our left and up an incline to what I suspect are gardens.

I fold my arms when I reach the top of the cobblestone and find myself standing at an entrance to a tall hedge maze.

“So, the most brutal killers on the Eastern Seaboard keep a mini-hospital beneath their flower beds…”

“You sound intrigued.” Rory watches me from the mouth of the labyrinth.

His gaze skims my face as his fingers trace my cheek, triggering another wave of that prickling discomfort.

I stiffen my spine. “Let’s get on with it.”

“Cooperation.” He offers another one of those infuriating smirks. “I approve.”

As we head into the maze, I walk close so that I don’t get lost. It’s tough since the hedges must be at least ten feet tall.

In silence, Rory leads us through the maze until the hedges on either side of us break away and we’re standing in a central area, where an ornate fountain sings in the midmorning sun. The beauty of it all stills me, especially once I spy the majestic architecture.

“What isthat?” I breathe, overwhelmed by the sight of a massive mansion sprouting from a well-manicured lawn justbeyond the border of the garden. Three levels of brick, mortar, and lush accents around the tall windowpanes and enormous doors rise from the ground like something out of a storybook.

“The house,” Rory says, as though it should be perfectly obvious.